753 BC, April 21
Romulus founds Rome (traditional).

648 BC, April 6
Earliest documented solar eclipse, recorded by the Ancient Greeks.

563 BC, April 8
Born: Gautama Buddha, religious leader (died: 483 BC).

215 BC, April 23
A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasum.

43 BC, April 14
Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed.

43 BC, April 21
Mark Antony is defeated by consul Aulus Hirtius in the Battle of Mutina; Hirtius is killed.

32 AD, April 25
Born: Otho, (Marcus Salvius Otho) Roman Emperor.

65 AD, April 30
Died: Lucan, (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus) Roman poet.

69 AD, April 15
Vitellius, (Aulus Vitellius Germanicus) commander of the Rhine armies, defeats Emperor Otho (Marcus Salvius Otho) in the Battle of Bedriacum and seizes the throne. (Otho commits suicide the next day).

121, April 26
Marcus Aurelius -- Roman Emperor (died: 180).

186, April 4
Born: Caracalla, Roman emperor (died: 217).

193, April 9
Septimius Severus (146-211) is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (the Balkans).

238, April 12
Bad day for Roman emperors as Gordian II is killed in battle and in despair, Gordian I commits suicide.

402, April 6
Stilicho stymies the Visigoths under Alaric in the Battle of Pollentia.

467, April 12
Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

527, April 1
Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

571, April 20
Born: The prophet Muhammad (Abu al-Qasim Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Abd al-Muttalib Ibn Hashim), founder of Islam, (died: 634).

742, April 2
Born: Charlemagne, King of the Franks (died: 814).

1012, April 19
Martyrdom of St. Alphege in Greenwich, London.

1014, April 23
Battle of Clontarf: -- Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.

1025, April 18
Boleslaw I Chrobry is crowned as the first in history king of Poland.

1066, April 24
Halley's Comet spotted and noted for the first time.

1071, April 16
Bari falls to Robert Guiscard, ending Byzantine rule in Italy.

1111, April 13
German King Henry IV is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1180, April 13
Frederick Barbarossa issues the Gelnhausen Charter.

1204, April 12
The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople.

1205, April 14
Bulgars win Battle of Adrianople against Crusaders.

1241, April 9
Mongol forces defeat the Polish and German armies in the Battle of Liegnitz.

1320, April 6
The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.

1348, April 23
The Order of the Garter is founded by King Edward III of England.

1429, April 29
Hundred Years' War: -- Joan of Arc relieves Orleans from English siege.

1450, April 15
French attack and nearly annihilate English in the Battle of Formigny, ending English domination in northern France.

1451, April 22
Born in Madrigal, Spain: Isabella of Castile (Queen Isabella I) who sponsored the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1491.

1452, April 15
Born: Leonardo da Vinci, artist (died: 1519).

1478, April 26
The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de' Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Florence (Italy) Cathedral.

1492, April 8
Died: Lorenzo de Medici, Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic.

1492, April 17
Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Queen Isabella and Ferdinand to take a shortcut to Asia for some spices. The rest is history, so they say.

1500, April 22
Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil.

1509, April 22
Henry VIII ascends to the throne of England after the death of his father.

1509, April 27
Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.

1512, April 11
French forces under Gaston de Foix defeat the Spanish under Raymond of Cardona in the Battle of Ravenna, but Gaston is killed.

1513, April 2
Juan Ponce de Leon set foot on Florida, becoming the first known European to do so. He claimed the "new discovery" for Spain.

1518, April 18
Bona Sforza is crowned as queen of Poland and married to Sigismund I of Poland.

1521, April 23
King Charles I of Spain defeats the Comuneros in the Battle of Villalar.

1521, April 27
Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

1524, April 17
Giovanni da Verrazano reaches New York harbor.

1529, April 22
Treaty of Saragossa was an update of the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. The new treaty continued to divide the western hemisphere between Spain and Portugal, leaving the rest of the world out. The dividing line should lay 297.5 leagues west of the Moluccas. Spain received monetary compensation in return for giving Portugal more territory than was in the earlier treaty. (King Francis I of France demanded to be shown which clause in Adam's will excluded France from the New World.)

1533, April 23
The Roman Catholic Church annuls the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England.

1564, April 23 or 26 (Pick it!)
Born: William Shakespeare, English playwright, actor. -- Actual birthdate unknown (died: at age 52, April 23, 1616).

1565, April 27
Cebu becomes the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

1581, April 4
Francis Drake completes a circumnavigation of the earth and is knighted by Elizabeth I.

1587, April 19
Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz Harbor.

1598, April 13
King Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, allowing freedom of religion to the Huguenots. (In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked Nantes with the Edict of Fontainebleau and declared France entirely Catholic again).

1606, April 12
England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack.

1607, April 26
English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia, later moving up the James River to found Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.

1614, April 5
In Virginia, American Indian princess Pocahontas marries Englishman John Rolfe.

1621, April 5
The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth on a return trip to Great Britain.

1632, April 14
Swedes, under Gustavus Adolphus, defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War in the Battle of Rain.

1633, April 12
Galileo is convicted of heresy.

1649, April 21
The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the state assembly.

1654, April 5
Signing of the Treaty of Westminster, ending the First Anglo-Dutch War.

1657, April 20
Jews of New Amsterdam (later New York City) granted freedom of religion.

1660, April 23
Sweden and Poland sign the Treaty of Oliva.

1661, April 23
King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1682, April 9
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle discovers the mouth of the Mississippi River, claims it for France and names the area Louisiana for King Louis XIV.

1684, April 15
Born: Catherine I (Martha Skavronskaya) of Russia (died: 1727).

1689, April 18
Died: George Jeffreys, British Chief Justice who presided over the "Bloody Assizes."

1689, April 20
The former King James II of England, now deposed, lays siege to Derry.

1704, April 24
The first regular newspaper in the U.S., the Boston New-Letter, is published.

1707, April 25
An Allied Austrian army is defeated by the Bourbon army at the Battle of Almansa (Spain) in the War of the Spanish Succession.

1713, April 11
War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War) ends with the Treaty of Utrecht.

1719, April 25
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published.

1724, April 22
Born: Immanuel Kant, philosopher (died: 1804).

1729, April 21
Born: Tsarina (female Tsar) Catherine II of Russia (died: 1796).

1743, April 13
Born: Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the U.S. (Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826).

1746, April 16
The Battle of Culloden in Scotland was the last military clash in mainland Britain between the forces of the Jacobites and those of the reigning Hanoverians.

1758, April 28
The fifth president, James Monroe, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

1759, April 14
Composer George Frideric Handel died in London.

1769, April 20
Died: Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawa tribe.

1770, April 29
James Cook discovers Botany Bay, Australia.

1773, April 27
The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1775, April 11
Last execution for witchcraft in Germany.

1775, April 14
The first American society for the abolition of slavery was organized by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush.

1775, April 18
Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott ride to warn of impending arrests of Samuel Adams and John Hancock and seizure of weapons. Only Prescott finishes the ride.

1775, April 19-20 (American Revolutionary War)
-- Apr. 19: The Battle of Lexington and Concord -- British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate colonists' firearms but his troops are beaten back.
-- Apr. 20: The British begin the Siege of Boston.

1783, April 15
Preliminary articles of peace ending the Revolutionary War are ratified.

1785, April 26
American naturalist and artist John James Audubon was born in Haiti.

1788, April 28
Maryland becomes the 7th state to ratify the Constitution of the U.S.

1789, April 1
The U.S. House of Representatives holds its first quorum in NYC and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.

1789, April 23
President-elect George Washington and his wife, Martha Custis Washington, moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York City.

1789, April 28
Mutiny on the HMS Bounty as the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

1789, April 30
On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in NYC, George Washington takes the oath as the first President of the new nation.

1790, April 17
Died: Benjamin Franklin, at his home in Philadelphis, age 84.

1791, April 23
The 15th president of the U.S., James Buchanan, was born in Franklin Co., Pa.

1792, April 2
The Coinage Act is passed establishing the U.S. Mint.

1792, April 5
President George Washington cast the first ever presidential veto. He rejected a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

1792, April 25
Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine as France puts the new device into use.

1799, April 16
Battle of Mount Tabor: Napoleon drives Ottoman Turks across the River Jordan near Acre.

1800, April 24
The U.S. Library of Congress was established.

1801, April 2
Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen -- The British destroy the Danish fleet.

1803, April 11, 30
-- Apr. 11: French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand offers to sell all of the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.
-- Apr. 30: Talleyrand's offer is accepted and the U.S. doubles in size by making the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million.

1805, April 2
Born: Hans Christian Andersen, in Odense, Denmark (died: 1875).

1805, April 27
U.S. Marines (with help from Berbers) attack and capture the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.

1808, April 6
John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.

1810, April 19
Emparan, Governor of the Captaincy General of Venezuela is removed by the people of Caracas and a Junta is installed giving the country home rule.

1812, April 20
The fourth vice president of the U.S., George Clinton, died in Washington at age 73, becoming the first v.p. to die while in office.

1812, April 30
The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state: Louisiana.

1813, April 27
War of 1812: U.S. troops capture York, Ontario (present-day Toronto, Ontario).

1814, April 4
Napoleon abdicates for the first time.

1814, April 11
Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.

1814, April 24
War of 1812: British troops burn Washington, D.C.

1815, April 12
Mount Tambora (Indonesia) blows its top during an eruption that started April 5. 92,000 are killed.

1818, April 4
Congress adopts the U.S. flag: 13 red and white stripes and one star for each of the 20 states on a blue field, with a star to be added for each new state.

1822, April 27
Ulysses S. Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

1826, April 1
Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

1828, April 14
Noah Webster copyrights and publishes the first edition of his dictionary, "American Dictionary of the English Language."

1829, April 10
Born: William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army (died: 1912).

1829, April 13
British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics.

1830, April 6
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) is formed by Joseph Smith, Jr. at Fayette Township, New York.

1832, April 6, 8
The Black Hawk War begins. On April 8, around 300 U.S. 6th Infantry troops left Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to fight the Sauk.

1836, April 21-22
Battle of San Jacinto: Texas forces under Sam Houston defeated and captured Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, assuring Texas' independence.

1839, April 19
The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom.

1841, April 4, 6
-- Apr. 4: William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia to become the first U.S. President to die in office and the one to serve the shortest term (31 days).
-- Apr. 6: John Tyler is inaugurated as the 10th President of the United States.

1846, April 24-25
Border disputes of Texas' boundaries leads to the Mexican-American War.

1847, April 10
Born: Joseph Pulitzer, journalist and publisher (died: 1911).

1850, April 23
Died: William Wordsworth, English poet (born: 1770).

1852, April 13
Born: F.W. Woolworth, merchant / businessman, founder of Woolworth's department stores (died: 1919).

1853, April 1
Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first U.S. city to pay its firefighters a regular salary.

1859, April 25
Ground is broken for the Suez Canal.

1860, April 2
The first Italian Parliament met at Turin.

1860, April 3, 14
The first successful Pony Express run from Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California takes 11 days.

1861, April 12
American Civil War: The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. (The Fort surrendered the next day.)

1861, April 17
American Civil War: Virginia secedes from the Union.

1861, April 20
American Civil War: -- Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the U.S. Army in order to command the Confederate forces of the state of Virginia.

1861, April 27
-- President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.
-- American Civil War: West Virginia secedes from Virginia.

1861, April 29
American Civil War: Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.

1862, April 5-7
-- Apr. 5: The Battle of Yorktown (1862) begins when Union forces under General George McClellan close in on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
-- Apr. 6-7: In Tennessee, the Battle of Shiloh is fought and won by Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

1862, April 20
The first pasteurization test was completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard.

1862, April 28
American Civil War: Adm. David Farragut captures New Orleans for the Union.

1863, April 24
In Keyesville, California, 53 Native American men from the Tehachapi tribe are massacred.

1863, April 30
American Civil War: -- The Battle of Chancellorsville begins.

1864, April 12
American Civil War: The Fort Pillow "massacre" takes place on the banks of the Mississippi in Tennessee.

1864, April 22
Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 which mandates that the inscription "In God We Trust" be placed on all coins minted as U.S. currency.

1865, April 1-3 (American Civil War)
-- Apr. 1: Battle of Five Forks in Petersburg, Virginia, where Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
-- Apr. 2: Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled from the Confederate capital of Richmond.
-- Apr. 3: Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia.

1865, April 9
Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, effectively ending the war.... but news traveled slowly and pockets of resistance continued.

1865, April 12
American Civil War: Mobile, Alabama falls to the Union Army.

1865, April 14
President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington.

1865, April 15
Early the morning, President Lincoln died from a gunshot wound. Later in the day, Andrew Johnson is inaugurated as the 17th President.

1865, April 17
Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1865, April 26
-- American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at Durham Station, N.C.
-- The Union cavalry cornered John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, in a barn in Virginia and cavalryman Boston Corbett shot him dead.

1865, April 27
The steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,400 passengers, exploded and sank in the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing 1,700, most of whom were Union survivors of the notorious Andersonville Prison. The prisoners were being transported North for release. [Recent research indicates that Sultana's boiler probably exploded and most of the dead were drowned.]

1866, April 10
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was incorporated.

1867, April 9
By a single vote, the U.S. Senate ratifies the treaty to complete the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

1867, April 23
William Lincoln patents the Zoetrope, a machine that shows a movie from images mounted in a wheel.

1868, April 11
The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.

1869, April 22
President Benjamin Harrison opens Oklahoma to white settlement.

1870 (O.S.), April 9
Born: Vladimir Lenin, Premier of the Soviet Union (died: 1924).

1872, April 2
Died: Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of Morse code (born: Arril 27, 1791).

1873, April 1
The British steamer SS Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia killing 547.

1874, April 25
Born: Guglielmo Marconi, radio inventor, recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics (died: 1937).

1876, April 11
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) is organized.

1877, April 24
Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

1882, April 3
Outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back and killed in St. Joseph, Missouri by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward.

1883, April 13
It is found that Alferd Packer is guilty of cannibalism, or.... something.

1884, April 4
Born: Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese naval commander who commanded the December 7, 1941 attack at Pearl Harbor. He was killed in an ambush from American planes on April 18, 1943.

1887, April 4
Argonia, KS elects Susanna Medora Salter, the first female mayor in the U.S.

1887, April 5
British historian Lord Acton wrote, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

1889, April 20
Born: Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany (died: 1945).

1889, April 22
The Oklahoma Land Rush began as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.

1891, April 1
The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago.

1891, April 7
Died: P.T. Barnum, circus impresario.

1893, April 11
Born: Dean Acheson, Secretary of State under Harry Truman (died: 1971).

1894, April 14
Thomas Edison demonstrates the kinetoscope, a device for peep-show viewing using photographs that flip in sequence, a precursor to movies.

1894, April 17
Born: Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Premier 1958-1964 (died: 1971).

1894, April 26
Rudolf Hess, -- Nazi official (died: 1987).

1895, April 5
Playwrite Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused the writer of homosexual practices.

1896, April 6
The first modern Olympic games formally opened in Athens, Greece.

1897, April 27
Grant's Tomb in New York City is dedicated.

1898, April 24-25
Spain declares war on the U.S., starting the Spanish-American War. The next day, Congress declares war on Spain and announces that a state of war has existed since April 21.

1899, April 11
Spain cedes Puerto Rico to the United States.

1900, April 30
-- Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States, with Sanford B. Dole as governor.
-- Railroad engineer John Luther Casey Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad is killed at the controls in a wreck near Vaughn, Miss., attempting to save his runaway train, the Cannonball Express.

1901, April 25
New York state becomes the first to require automobile license plates.

1902, April 2
"Electric Theatre", the first movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.

1902, April 13
James Cash Penney opens his first store called "The Golden Rule," in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

1902, April 20
Pierre and Marie Curie isolate radium.

1904, April 22
Born: J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, leader of the Manhattan Project team during World War II, (died: 1967).

1905, April 4
In India, an earthquake near Kangra, kills 370,000.

1906, April 7
Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples, Italy.

1906, April 18
An earthquake of about 7.8 magnitude destroys much of San Francisco.

1909, April 6
Explorers Robert Edwin Peary and Matthew A. Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole. (The claim, disputed by skeptics, was upheld in 1989 by the Navigation Foundation.)

1909, April 19
Joan of Arc is declared a saint by the Catholic Church.

1910, April 21
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better know as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn.

1912, April 10, 12, 14-15
-- Apr. 10: The 'unsinkable' RMS Titanic leaves port from Southampton, England, to New York on its maiden voyage.
-- Apr. 12: Clara Barton, nurse and Red Cross advocate, dies at her home in Maryland of complications from a cold.
-- Apr. 14: Just before midnight, the RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg.
-- Apr. 15: The great liner sinks at about 2:20 am, less than three hours after striking the iceberg. About 1,500 people died.

1913, April 8
Amendment XVII to the U.S. Constitution is ratified requiring direct election of Senators, thereby removing any concept of "States Rights" protection from the document. (This ratification followed the "Income Tax Amendment" on Feb. 13th which had already killed individual autonomy from the federal government.)

1913, April 24
An opening-day ceremony is held for the new Woolworth Building in NYC.

1914, April 20
Ludlow Massacre of striking Colorado coal miners.

1914, April 22
Nineteen year-old Babe Ruth pitches his first professional game, for the Baltimore Orioles.

1915, April 22
World War I: German troops introduce poison gas at Ypres, Belgium.

1915, April 24
The Armenian Genocide by Muslim Turks begins.

1915, April 25
In World War I, the Anzac tradition begins with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.

1916, April 9
In World War I, German forces launch their third offensive of the Battle of Verdun.

1916, April 24-29
Easter uprising in Ireland as some 1,600 Irish nationalists seize several key sites in Dublin. The U.K. declares martial law that lasts until April 29.

1917, April 2, 6
-- Apr. 2: President Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of war on Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy".
-- Apr. 6: Congress declares war, bringing the U.S. into World War I.

1917, April 9
World War I: Battle of Arras -- Canadian forces carry out a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.

1917, April 16
Vladimir Lenin returns from exile.

1918, April 1
The Royal Air Force was established in Great Britain.

1918, April 21
World War I: -- Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the "Red Baron," was shot down and killed by a Canadian pilot.

1919, April 13
Amritsar massacre: British and Gurkha troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators in Amritsar, India.

1919, April 19
Leslie Irvin of the U.S. claims the first successful free-fall parachute jump. The U.S. Army gives credit to one of its own, Capt. Albert Berry, for the first tethered jump, in 1912. [Free-fall is when the jumper pulls the ripcord. -- Tethered is when the ripcord is hooked to the airplane.]

1920, April 28
Azerbaijan is added to the Soviet Union.

1922, April 7
Teapot Dome scandal: U.S. Secretary of the Interior leases Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming.

1924, April 1
Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch." However he was only in jail for nine months.

1924, April 17
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios is formed.

1925, April 24
John Scopes taught Darwin's theory of evolution, leading to the Scopes monkey trial.

1926, April 12
By a vote of 45 to 41, the U.S. Senate unseats Iowa Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.

1926, April 20
Western Electric and Warner Bros. announces Vitaphone, a process to add sound to movies.

1926, April 25
Reza Kahn is crowned Shah of Iran under the name Reza Shah Pahlevi.

1927, April 7
First long distance public television broadcast (Washington, D.C. to New York City; image was of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover).

1927, April 19
Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play, Sex.

1930, April 2
Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia.

1930, April 22
The U.K., Japan and the U.S. sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.

1931, April 14
A Spanish Cortes Generales (General Courts) deposes King Alfonso XIII and proclaims the Second Spanish Republic.

1932, April 10
German president Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.

1932, April 28
A vaccine for yellow fever is announced for use on humans.

1933, April 1
Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews by boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

1933, April 23
The Gestapo is established in Germany.

1935, April 14
Black Sunday, was the result of the worst dust storm of the Dust Bowl.

1937, April 26
Spanish Civil War: -- Guernica, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.

1937, April 27
The nation's first Social Security checks were distributed.

1938, April 19
RCA-NBC begins the first regular television broadcasts.

1939, April 9
Marian Anderson (Feb. 27, 1897-Apr. 8, 1993) sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after having been refused the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.

1939, April 30
-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the first U.S. President to appear on television.
-- The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

1940, April 9
World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

1940, April 20
The RCA Corp. publicly demonstrated its new and powerful electron microscope.

1940, April 23
About 200 people died in a dance hall fire in Natchez, Miss.

1941, April 6
World War II: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece. Yugoslavia surrenders on April 17.

1941, April 11
World War II: The German Luftwaffe bombs Coventry, England.

1942, April 9
World War II: -- Battle of Bataan -- U.S. units surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Bataan Death March followed which claimed nearly 10,000 lives.

1942, April 18
WW II: Col. James "Jimmy" Doolittle uses 16 B-25's to pull off a spectacular air raid on Tokyo.

1942, April 23
World War II: German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York, England.

1942, April 26
The worst ever mining accident occurs when 1,549 miners are killed by an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery mine in Manchuria, China.

1943, April 13
President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

1943, April 19
WW II: German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

1943, April 30
WW II: Operation Mincemeat -- The submarine HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer. (After the war a movie was made starring Clifton Webb: The Man Who Never Was).

1944, April 22
WW II: U.S. forces began invading New Guinea with amphibious landings near Hollandia.

1945, April 1
World War II: U.S. troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign in the Pacific.

1945, April 7
World War II: American planes intercepted a Japanese fleet that was headed for Okinawa on a suicide mission.

1945, April 11
World War II: In Europe, U.S. forces liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.

1945, April 12
Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33th President after the death of Franklin Roosevelt of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia.

1945, April 15
During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

1945, April 16
U.S. troops reach Nuremberg, Germany, during World War II.

1945, April 18
-- WW II: A thousand-bomber raid on tiny Heligoland leaves nothing standing; 128 people, mostly anti-aircraft crew, were killed.
-- Died: Ernie Pyle, American war correspondent, on Ie Shima, an island off Okinawa, as the result of machine gun fire from an enemy sniper.

1945, April 20
-- WW II: Allied forces took control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.

1945, April 25
-- WW II: U.S. and Russian troops link up at the Elbe River in Germany.
-- The United Nations is organized in San Francisco by 50 nations.

1945, April 26
WW II: Marshall Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government was arrested.

1945, April 28-29
-- Apr. 28: Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) and his mistress Clara Petacci were shot to death while trying to flee Italy. They were then hanged upside down and mutilated in public at an ESSO (EXXON) service station.
-- Apr. 29: The German Army in Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.
-- Apr. 29: Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and he designates Admiral Karl Doenitz as his successor.
-- Apr. 29: Dachau concentration camp is liberated by U.S. troops.

1945, April 30
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day.

1946, April 1
Tidal waves struck the Hawaiian islands, resulting in more than 170 deaths.

1946, April 3
Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March was executed outside Manila in the Philippines.

1946, April 12
Syria gains independence from France.

1946, April 18
The League of Nations is dissolved to make way for the U.N.

1946, April 29
Former Prime Minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo, and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.

1947, April 7
Died: Henry Ford, automobile pioneer, in Dearborn, MI, at age 83.

1947, April 9
The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward Tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

1947, April 15
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in a Major League Baseball game.

1947, April 16
Financier and Harry Truman's presidential confidant said in a speech at the South Carolina statehouse: "Let us not be deceived -- we are today in the midst of a cold war."

1947, April 16-17
While loading ammonium nitrate at Texas City, Texas, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp causes a 4,000 ft. high explosion that knocks a plane out of the sky. Flames soon spread to the High Flyer and other vessels as well as ashore killing nearly 600 and injurying 3,000.

1947, April 18
While destroying German naval installations on Heligoland, the British Royal Navy detonate 6800 tons of explosive in an attempt to demolish the island.

1947, April 28
Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

1948, April 1
Cold War: -- Berlin Airlift -- Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.

1948, April 3
President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan into law which, for starters, authorized $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

1948, April 7
The World Health Organization (WHO) is established by the United Nations.

1948, April 30
In Bogota, Colombia the Organization of American States (OAS) is established.

1949, April 4
Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

1949, April 4
The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force.

1951, April 5
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction in New York on charges of supplying the Soviet Union with atomic bomb secrets from the U.S.; co-defendent Morton Sobell was sentenced to 30 years in prison (he was released in 1969).

1951, April 11, 19 (Korean War)
-- Apr. 11: President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
-- Apr. 19: MacArthur retires and bids farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

1952, April 8
In a radio address from the White House, President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all steel mills in the U.S. in order to prevent a strike.

1952, April 22
An atomic test conducted in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.

1952, April 28
The U.S. formally ends the post-World War II occupation of Japan.

1953, April 21
Roy Cohn and G. David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief aides, recommend the removal of 30,000 books from the libraries of the U.S. Information Service posts in Europe, including works by Dashiell Hammett, W. E. B. Du Bois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau, calling them "pro-Communist."

1953, April 24
British statesman Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1953, April 25
Francis Crick and James Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1954, April 1
President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

1954, April 22
The televised Senate Army-McCarthy hearings began.

1954, April 23
Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his 755 major-league home runs, in a game against the St. Louis Cardinals. (The Braves won, 7-5.)

1955, April 12
The Salk vaccine against polio was declared safe and effective.

1955, April 18
Died: Albert Einstein, scientist.

1958, April 13
Van Cliburn became the first American to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow.

1959, April 9
NASA announces the selection of the U.S.' first seven astronauts, selected for the Mercury program. (The news media quickly dub them the "Mercury 7." They were: Scott Carpenter; Gordon Cooper; John Glenn; Gus Grissom; Wally Shirra; Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.)

1959, April 25
-- The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.
-- The first person now known to have had AIDS, enters a hospital.

1960, April 1
The U.S. launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1.

1961, April 12
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space.

1961, April 17
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins but ends in failure on April 19. (The CIA trained invaders had been led by President Kennedy to believe that they would receive U.S. air support but Kennedy reneged on the deal AFTER the invasion was launched. The invaders were slaughtered in the Bay of Pigs waiting for air cover that never came.)

1961, April 25
Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1962, April 24
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Calif., and Westford, Mass.

1963, April 9
British statesman Winston Churchill was made an honary U.S. citizen.

1963, April 10
The nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher is lost off the coast of Cape Cod, with all hands (129 officers, crewmen and civilian technicians).

1964, April 5
Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington, D.C. at age 84.

1964, April 7
IBM announced the System/360 and changed the world.

1964, April 17
-- Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to pilot an airplane around the world.
-- At NY World's Fair, Ford Motor Company unveiled a new model, the Mustang.

1964, April 26
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

1965, April 9
The newly built Houston Astrodome featured its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Astros and the NY Yankees. (The Astros won, 2-1.)
[AstroTurf was introduced in the Astrodome.]

1965, April 11
The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states killing 256 people.

1966, April 7
The U.S. recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.

1967, April 1
The U.S. Department of Transportation begins operation.

1967, April 23
Soyuz 1 is launched into orbit with a single cosmonaut, Col. Vladimir Komarov, who is killed during the next day's landing.

1968, April 4
-- Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
-- NASA launches Apollo 6.

1968, April 11
Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

1968, April 12
Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.

1968, April 20
The Liberal Party of Canada led by Pierre Trudeau wins the Canadian Federal Election.

1968, April 20
English politician Enoch Powell makes controversial Rivers of Blood Speech.

1968, April 23
Born: Timothy McVeigh - American terrorist (executed: June 11, 2001).

1969, April 7
The Internet's symbolic birth date: publication of RFC 1.

1969, April 17, 23
-- Apr. 17: Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.
-- Apr. 23: Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death but the sentence was later reduced to life.

1970, April 1
President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law banning cigarette advertisements in the U.S. starting on January 1, 1971.

1970, April 11, 13, 17
-- Apr. 11: Apollo 13 is launched.
-- Apr. 13: Four-fifths of the way to the moon, Apollo 13's oxygen tank explodes.
-- Apr. 17: The skills of the crew and NASA shine as Apollo 13 returns safely.

1970, April 21
Hutt River Province secedes from the Commonwealth of Australia.
(See Hutt River Province official Website.)

1970, April 29
U.S. and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia looking for Viet Cong ambushers who had been retreating into Cambodia for safety.

1971, April 6
Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky died in New York City.

1972, April 10
The U.S. and Soviet Union joined some 70 other nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare.

1972, April 20
The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon.

1973, April 4
The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.

1973, April 6
Launch of Pioneer 11 spacecraft.

1973, April 8
Died: Pablo Picasso, artist, at his home near Mougins, France. He was 91.

1973, April 30
Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces that top White House aids HR Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and others have resigned.

1974, April 3
The Super Outbreak occurred: 148 tornadoes affected 13 states and Canada in 26 hours. It was the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history and resulted in more than 300 fatalities.

1974, April 8
Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hit his 715th career home run in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, breaking Babe Ruth's record. The round-tripper was off pitcher Al Downing.

1974, April 10
Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel and was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin.

1974, April 29
Watergate Scandal: President Richard Nixon announces the release of edited transcripts of White House tape recordings related to the scandal.

1975, April 5
Republic of China leader Chiang Kai-shek died at age 87.

1975, April 12, 17, 29 (Vietnam War)
-- Apr. 12: The U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh is evacuated as Khmer Rouge troops encircle the city.
-- Apr. 17: Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge.
-- Apr. 29: U.S. quits and goes home leaving the South Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians to a massive slaughter that took place over the next two years.

1976, April 1
Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

1976, April 5
Died: Reclusive, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, aviation pioneer, engineer, film producer and film director.

1978, April 20
A Korean Air Lines Boeing 707 (off course and in Soviet airspace by mistake) crash-landed in northwestern Russia after being fired on by a Soviet interceptor. Two passengers were killed.

1980, April 7, 24
-- Apr. 7: The U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes economic sanctions after the taking of American hostages from its embassy on Nov. 4, 1979.
-- Apr. 24: An American attempt to rescue the American hostages fails with eight American servicemen dead and no hostages freed.

1981, April 8
Died: Gen. Omar N. Bradley, in New York at age 88.

1981, April 10
Imprisoned Irish Republican Army (IRA) hunger striker Bobby Sands won election to the British Parliament. He died (still on a hunger strike and still in prison) less than a month later.

1981, April 12
-- The first launch of Space Shuttle Columbia: the STS-1 mission.
-- Died: Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion.

1981, April 24
Introduction of the first IBM PC.

1981, April 27
Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) introduces the computer mouse.

1982, April 2
Falklands War: Argentina invaded British-owned Falkland Islands starting a war.

1982, April 25
Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula to meet the terms of the Camp David Accords.

1982, April 27
The sham process began in Washington to help John W. Hinckley Jr., who had shot four people, including President Ronald Reagan. The scam worked as the poor fellow was placed in a "mental institution" instead of jail (after all, it was only Reagan that was shot, NOT JFK!). Today, Hinckley enjoys a life better than most and is allowed to leave the facitity to visit family and friends when he is not strolling around on the well manicured lawns waving to and chatting with reporters and other frequent visitors.

1983, April 4
Space Shuttle Challenger makes its maiden voyage into space.

1983, April 7
During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).

1983, April 8
Died: Omar Bradley, General of the Army (5 stars) in World War II.

1984, April 4
President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

1984, April 22
Died: Ansel Adams, American photographer.

1984, April 24
Apple Computer unveils its Apple IIc portable computer.

1985, April 23
The Coca-Cola Company announced it was changing the secret flavor formula for Coke but negative public reaction soon forced the company to resume selling the original version.

1986, April 3
IBM unveils the PC Convertible, the first laptop computer.

1986, April 26
In the Ukraine, a reactor at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant exploded creating the worlds worst nuclear disaster. 31 are killed directly by the incident and many thousands more were exposed to significant amounts of radioactive material.

1988, April 25
In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. He was accused by survivors of being a notorious guard known as "Ivan the Terrible" at the Treblinka extermination camp.

1989, April 7
The Soviet submarine Komsomolets sank in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway after a fire, killing 42 sailors and causing serious environmental concerns.

1989, April 15
Students in Beijing launched a series of pro-democracy protests following the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang; the protests culminated in the Tiananmen Square incident.

1989, April 19
A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.

1990, April 13
The Soviet Union admits to the Katyn Massacre of WWII.

1990, April 24
-- The Hubble Space Telescope is launched by Space Shuttle Discovery.
-- Gruinard island, Scotland, is officially declared free of anthrax after 48 years of quarantine.

1991, April 9
Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1991, April 30
A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing about 125,000 people.

1992, April 6
Science-fiction author Isaac Asimov died in New York at age 72.

1992, April 29
Deadly rioting erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley, Calif., acquitted four L.A. police officers of most state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. During the next 3 days, 54 people are killed and hundreds of buildings destroyed.

1992, April 30
The World Wide Web Consortium announces it is dedicated to a FREE access (no fees) World Wide Web.

1993, April 19
A 50-day siege by federal agents of the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one Davidians die. Four agents and five Dividians had been killed earlier.

1994, April 6
Genocide in Rwanda begins when the airplane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi is shot down. (The UN said, ho-hum.) On April 7, an organized massacre of Tutsis gets under way in Kigali.

1994, April 15
Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and setting up the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).

1994, April 21
The first discovery of extrasolar planets is announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.

1994, April 23
Physicists discover the top quark subatomic particle.

1994, April 28
Former Central Intelligence Agency official Aldrich Ames and pleads guilty to giving U.S. secretes to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

1995, April 19
Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is bombed by domestic terrorist, killing 168.

1996, April 3
"Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.

1997, April 13
Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Golf Tournament.

1997, April 28
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, signed in Paris in January, 1993, goes into effect. Russia, Iraq and North Korea were notable nations who had not ratified the treaty.

1998, April 5
In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshu and costing cost about $3.8 billion (US), opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.

1998, April 7
Citicorp and Travelers Group announced plans to merge creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, to be called Citigroup.

1998, April 9
The National Prisoner of War Museum is dedicated in Andersonville, Georgia, on the site of an American Civil War POW camp.

1999, April 1
Nunavut is established as a new Canadian territory carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

1999, April 5
Two Libyans, suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.

1999, April 19
The German Parliament returns to Berlin from Bonn after reunification of East-West Germany.

1999, April 20
Columbine High School massacre: -- Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open fire in their high school leaving 15 dead and 23 wounded.

2000, April 3
Microsoft antitrust case: Microsoft is ruled to have violated U.S. antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.

2000, April 22
Federal agents used a predawn raid to seize six-year old Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida, and return him to Cuba.

2001, April 1
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic surrenders to police, to be tried on charges of war crimes.

2001, April 7
Mars Odyssey is launched.

2001, April 12
Died: Harvey Ball, inventor of the Smiley.

2001, April 16
The U.S. Constitutional right of access to DNA testing is established, granting convicted felons the right to have their DNA tested in an attempt to exonerate themselves.

2002, April 1
The Netherlands legalizes euthanasia, becoming the only nation in the world to do so.

2002, April 18
-- Died: Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer on the Kon-Tiki expeditions.
-- A new order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.

2003, April 9
The Ba'ath regime headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq is toppled by American military forces.

2003, April 23
Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.

2003, April 28
Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store opens, sells 1,000,000 songs first week.

2004, April 2
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.